Working Class Hero
by Sisiutil
Summary: Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1. Set a few years after RotJ, focusing on original characters. Freighter Captain Axel Bergeron is hired by a mysterious woman to take his ship on a dangerous mission into Imperial territory. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Foreword**

I love _Star Wars_.

By which I mean the original film. That's what it was called when I went to see it for the first time, and for the dozen or so times after that, not _Episode IV_ or anything else, yes I know I'm dating myself, shut up and give the old man a chance, kids. My point is that I have a deeply-felt, nearly life-long affection for the fictional universe that George Lucas created. Time and several increasingly-disappointing sequels and prequels have not diminished that. (Though _The Empire Strikes Back _was also pretty darned good.)

Oh, and while we're on the topic... Han shot first.

Despite my affection for the first two movies, I've hesitated about attempting to write any _Star Wars _fan fiction. Lucas' vision of his fictional universe--whatever criticisms I may have about what he chose to do with it--is incredibly rich and detailed. It has also been developed extensively outside of the movies, to the point where stories not only have to fit into the films' continuity, but that of the many novels, comics, and even video games in the "Expanded Universe" as well. All of which is pretty intimidating for someone with only a passing acquaintance with the EU. But I'm going to try it anyway.

I got the inspiration recently to tell the story about a relatively ordinary person in that universe. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Luke Skywalker, of course (my brother wanted to be Han Solo--you could probably write a psychology dissertation around that, but I digress). As I've gotten older, I find I identify more and more with the less remarkable characters (relatively speaking)--like, say, Wedge Antilles. Maybe that's part of growing up--or growing old(er). In any case, this story is the first of a trilogy that features original characters with only passing mentions/appearances of those from the main _Star Wars _story line. That's one way to reduce the likelihood of upsetting the purists and nit-pickers, I guess. I hope it doesn't lessen the appeal of the story. It happens some time after Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. Yes, I'm being deliberately vague, there.

Lastly, my thanks go to everyone involved in the Wookiepedia for establishing and maintaining such an invaluable reference source. Any "factual" mistakes in the narrative are, of course, my own.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

On later reflection, he would realize that it had all started because of her lips.

That was all it had taken. That was all he'd seen of her at first. No face, no eyes, certainly not her body, not beneath that dark amorphous robe that hung off her slender shoulders. No, all it had taken to pull him in was her lips. How pathetic was that?

He'd been sitting quietly at the bar in a dimly-lit place that wasn't even upscale enough to bear a name. It was one of several such establishments in Carnaxa, the primary spaceport city of Sessram Prime. Axel Bergeron wasn't much of a drinker, but he conducted business there, as did several other freighter pilots. Not that he wanted to, but for some strange reason that escaped him, seedy bars had become the standard environments in which to attract and conduct business in the outer rim systems. Which made Axel feel like he had just a little too much in common with the prostitutes of various species who plied their trade on the opposite side of the bar from where the freighter jockeys sat. Both collections of professionals nursed their drinks, waited for business, and utterly failed in their attempts not to look completely bored. Or desperate.

He hadn't even seen her at first. It was the strangest sensation--as if someone was watching him. No, as if someone was _studying_ him, intently. He turned around and found himself looking at... well, he wasn't exactly sure at first. Between the dim light of the bar and the creature's clothing, he couldn't discern much. The other sentient--he had to assume it was indeed sentient--was standing a meter behind him. It was slender and stood half a head shorter than Axel did, so it was a little under average height if it was human. But that was hard to tell, because it was wearing a long, dark brown cloak with a hood over its head that obscured any identifying features, especially in the bar's meager light.

"Can I help you?" Axel asked.

The creature didn't move, didn't even speak for a moment. Then the head lifted a little, and Axel could just barely discern a slender, pointed chin; smooth, pale beige skin; and two lips--the lower one slightly thicker than the upper. Very pretty lips, Axel couldn't help thinking. Humanoid, definitely, and probably...

"You're a freighter pilot?" A female voice spoke through those enticing lips in unaccented Basic.

Axel smiled. Always smile for a potential customer, his dad had always told him, and if she was a human female, well, that just made it easier. Especially if she had very pretty lips. Which she decidedly did. Unconsciously, Axel ran a hand through his short black hair. He then ran his fingers over his lower face, verifying thankfully that he had, indeed, shaved that day. For a change.

"That's right," Axel confirmed. "I have my own ship. Freight or passengers, I take both."

"I'd like to hire you," the female said in an expressionless tone.

Axel nodded. "Okay. Let's go to a booth and talk privately," he suggested. She nodded her head in agreement, and Axel turned and tossed a few coins onto the bar to settle his bill. He then led his new potential client to an empty booth against the wall of the bar, several feet back from the entrance.

"I need..." the woman began to say when they were seated on opposite sides of the table from one another, but Axel held up his hand then reached inside the pocket of the dark suede jacket he wore. He pulled out a small cylinder-shaped device, about the size of a cigar, but with three squat metal legs at one end. He positioned the device on these legs in the middle of the table top, then pressed a button on top of the cylinder. The cylinder glowed in a soft blue hue and made a low humming noise.

"What is that?" the woman asked calmly from beneath her hood. Axel still couldn't see anything more than her chin and her lips.

"Privacy," he told her. "It's an aural disruption field generator. It'll jam any listening devices within the vicinity or pointed at us, and will also render our conversation inaudible to anyone outside the 1.5 meter aural cone it creates."

"Clever," the woman said in a flat tone that indicated she was appreciative, but not overly impressed.

"A professional necessity in these parts," Axel said with an apologetic smile and shrug, "even if you're not a smuggler."

Her head cocked a little beneath her dark hood, indicating a degree of surprise. "You're not?" she said.

"I'll choose not to take that as an insult," Axel said with an easy smile. "No, I'm not a smuggler. If that's what you're after, I can hook you up with almost any of my colleagues over at the bar. They'll do that kind of work, but they'll charge you more, and..."

"...and?" she prompted him.

"Well, I wouldn't want to cast aspersions upon my fellow freighter captains..."

"You didn't seem to feel that way a few minutes ago," she remarked. One corner of her mouth twitched upwards, just for a moment.

"Touché," Axel acknowledged. "To be blunt, they're... not all that trustworthy."

"And you are?" she asked in that same flat, expressionless tone of voice she'd been using with him all along.

"Bergeron and Son Shipping Limited has an unblemished record dating back to the days of the Old Republic," he told her proudly, his face suddenly serious. "I'm not about to sully that good name."

"I take it you're the son?" she asked.

"Actually, I'm the _grand_son," he told her. "And... now the sole proprietor." Axel's lips tightened a little. How long had it been now--five months? But the wound still felt fresh whenever someone happened to bump against it, however unintentionally they had done so. "But that's not the point. The _point_ is, I run an honest business. I don't carry contraband, at least not willingly or knowingly. I won't turn around and demand more money in the middle of a job unless you actually want to change the terms in mid-flight. I don't dump cargo and I especially don't dump passengers."

Her head rose a fraction, as if surprised by that latter remark. "Do smugglers do that? Shove their passengers out an airlock?" she asked.

"Not often, but it's been known to happen," he told her quietly. "Usually not without cause..."

"But you don't do that."

"Never had the stomach for it," he told her. "But that's why I insist on my customers being just as honest with me as I am with them. I'll run away from pirates, but not from official inspection ships--doesn't matter _whose_ they are, understand? If I get boarded, so be it. My take on it is, I've got nothing to hide; it's inconvenient, but it's part of the job. Now, if you need someone with... fewer scruples and a bigger appetite for risk, let's say, then I'd recommend you talk to Torve, or Muttz, or even old Webbe there..." Axel pointed to some of the other freighter pilots seated at the bar.

"No," she said suddenly. "I... think I'd prefer to hire you."

"Okay," he said. "Then let's talk about the job. Just keep in mind that I reserve the right of refusal until we come to a complete agreement about terms."

"Very well," she said. "I need to go to... a distant star system, pick up a passenger, and return with them to New Republic territory."

"Okay," Axel said a little impatiently, "I'm going to need more details than that. A _lot _more. What 'distant star system', for starters."

She hesitated, only for a moment, but enough to tell him that he probably wouldn't like her answer.

"B'Tel," she said. "I need to go to B'Tel Four."

Axel's dark brows rose, and he inhaled deeply. "B'Tel, huh?" he said in a noncommittal tone.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, though no anxiety crept into her voice. Whoever she was, Axel reflected, she was a cool customer.

"Not a problem so much as a complication," he replied.

"Why?"

"Do I really need to tell you?" he said, but his rhetorical remark was greeted by expectant silence. "Okay, fine, I'll tell you. The B'Tel system is in Imperial-controlled space. Granted it's right on the fringe now, and the Empire ain't what it used to be, but it's Imperial territory nonetheless. That means we probably _will_ get boarded, and several times. On top of which, it's half-way across the freakin' galaxy, lady! Even going through hyper-space, we're going to eat up a lot of fuel getting there and back. _And _there'll be a fuel surcharge since it sounds like we're not coming back to the Sessram system on the return trip."

"No," she acknowledged. When she remained silent, he looked at her expectantly. "You said you not a smuggler. But I trust you're discreet?"

"The very soul of discretion," he said, "provided I'm getting paid enough. Now what's our ultimate destination?"

"Coruscant," she said quietly.

Axel's brows rose yet again. He hadn't been to the galactic capital planet since... well, never. On top of that, several hairs on the back of his neck were starting to rise. This mysterious woman wanted to go from New Republic space to Imperial territory and back again, and then straight to the capital of the still-not-entirely-stable New Republic government? It would have made even the greenest freighter jock suspicious, and Axel Bergeron, while younger than most of his compatriots, was no greenhorn. He'd been flying in the family freighter since the day he he'd been born right aboard the ship itself.

"Okay, what's the game here, lady?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. "You want to just casually hop, skip, and jump from here, into Imperial space, and then back to the capital?" he went on, tapping loudly on the tabletop with his forefinger as he listed off each destination. "Bull. I need to be filled in on what you're up to before I agree to take this job."

Even in the face of his growing agitation, she remained perfectly still. "How much will it cost you to do this with no questions asked?"

"A _lot_," he replied sharply. "I'm naturally inquisitive."

"Just tell me your price," she said calmly.

Axel exhaled, frowned, and pulled a small digipad out of his coat pocket. He powered it on, then began tapping figures into his pricing application. A few seconds later, he set it on the tabletop and pushed it towards her.

"Eight thousand," he said. "Not a credit less. With half up front."

For the first time since he'd met this mysterious woman a few minutes ago, her lips showed some evidence of emotion. They pressed together into a thin line, then her tongue darted out to lick them briefly.

"I can give you one thousand now," she said. When he rolled his eyes and exhaled a disgusted sigh, she spread her hands out upon the tabletop in front of her. "It's all I have on me. I can get you the rest when we get to Coruscant. _Plus_," she added as he leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms, "a one thousand credit bonus. And another five hundred if we leave within a half hour."

In spite of the growing size of the offer, perhaps even because of it, Axel maintained his reluctant posture across the table from her. He narrowed his eyes and cast that usually-effective piercing stare at where he imagined her eyes must be beneath that hood.

"Who are you working for?" he demanded.

She sat up a little straighter at the unexpected question. "What makes you think I'm working for anyone?"

"No one's that generous with their own money," he replied.

"I thought the price was for no questions asked," she responded.

"I don't like it," Axel said. "I told you, I'm not a smuggler, and I'm not some special agent, either. I'm just a guy with a ship who's trying to earn a living. I don't need trouble with the New Republic bean-counters, and I especially don't need it with those leftover psychopaths from the Empire. I think you better find yourself another hauler..." he said as he began to push himself up from the table.

"Please," she said as she reached out to clasp his arm with one hand while the other pushed back her hood. "I can't trust any of them. But I can trust you. I can sense it. Mr. Bergeron... you're my only hope."

Axel wished she hadn't done that. Really wished she hadn't, with all his heart. Why couldn't she have left the hood in place, and just remained a mysterious, cloaked figure with a nice pair of lips that he could have easily walked away from? But she hadn't, and now he was caught.

Because under the hood, she was beautiful. Radiant, even. She had long auburn hair, pulled back into a pony-tail so it tightly framed her oval-shaped face, with little wisps of her reddish-gold locks curled over her delicate ears. Two thin, auburn brows arched over her eyes, deep, dark brown eyes that looked at him beseechingly. Her nose was straight and fine and ever-so-slightly upturned at the end. All of which made those lips he'd first noticed look even more enticing, even more... well, kissable. She wore no makeup; she didn't need it. Her ivory skin glowed even in the bar's dim light, a healthy glow that told him she kept active and that the body hidden beneath that amorphous robe would be just as enticing as her face.

If only she'd been ugly; as terrible as it sounded, he would have walked away, and without a second thought. Even as he paused and felt the warmth of her hand where it delicately grasped his wrist, he could hear his late father's voice in his head, reminding him of his greatest weakness. He had several, he knew, but this one had no equal.

_You're a hell of a pilot, Axel_, his father had told him on several occasions, _and a good businessman, but you're a damned sucker for a pretty face_. _It'll be the death of you one day, mark my words. _

"Then I'll die a happy man," Axel muttered to himself as he sat back down.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"I'm in hangar forty-two, Ms. Branon," Axel told his new client as they walked out of the bar and into the street.

"Just call me Kilu," she said.

"All right, Kilu," Axel said with what he hoped was a charming smile, "The hangar is about a half kilometer that way," he said, pointing down the street. "Just go up one block, follow the main drag past the fuel depot, and you can't miss it. I'll see you there in twenty minutes."

Kilu Branon turned and looked down the street where he was pointing. It was night, and a brief rainfall had soaked the streets of Carnaxa so that they reflected the bright, colorful lights of the seedy bars and shops that clustered around the fringes of the spaceport city's hanger area. The buildings were mostly low-rises, one to three stories at most, their heights limited to better accommodate the spacecraft that flew overhead day and night; the high-rises were located back in the more respectable city center five kilometers to the west. _It's a wretched hive of scum and villainy_, his dad used to joke, _but it's home_.

"Can't we both go straight there?" she asked him.

Axel turned to look at her and understood why she'd kept herself covered up so much before. She had the hood back up, but had pulled it back far enough so he could see her face now, including her eyes. The rest of her body remained still and calm, as did her facial expression, but her eyes betrayed her. Those big brown orbs were expressive as well as beautiful, and he could read her anxiety in them, clear as day. He was certain she was well aware of the effect her eyes had on him, and that she was playing him, but he also felt powerless to resist it. As proof, he was about to fly halfway across the galaxy into Imperial territory based on a down-payment of a mere one thousand credits... and a pleading look from a pretty face.

"What's your hurry?" he asked her.

As if in answer, a non-human voice speaking a low, guttural alien tongue suddenly erupted from Axel's left. He turned to see a short, heavily-built creature with large, dark eyes, dark grey skin, and a protruding lower jaw staring straight at his client, then turn and shout in its incomprehensible language over its shoulder, apparently calling to companions of some sort. As it did so, one of its large, powerful hands lowered to a holster on its right hip.

"Get down!" Kilu yelled.

She then surprised Axel by throwing her shoulder into his chest and making him follow her order whether he like it or not. As he fell backwards, winded, he heard the unmistakable high-pitched sudden whine of a blaster firing, the bolt of high-energy particles searing the air just above his head. Axel found himself falling unceremoniously onto his backside, but had enough sense to keep rolling back and out of danger into an alleyway, with Kilu following. Somehow, even as his adrenaline began to surge, he discounted the luck of his location and realized that his mysterious client had intentionally pushed them into it. In a heartbeat, she was back on her feet and ready to run while he was still pushing himself up onto his hands and knees.

"MOVE!" she shouted, her eyes glancing briefly at him before she looked back to the alley entrance, watching for their attacker.

As he scrambled to his feet, Axel reached down to his left thigh for the blaster he always had strapped there. He disliked the thing, but it was a necessity of life for any freighter pilot, smuggler or not. Very few spaceports anywhere in the galaxy were respectable places. He raised the blaster in his left hand and pointed it back down the alley as he back-pedaled behind his client.

When they were about ten meters down the alley, the creature that had attacked them suddenly appeared at the entrance. Before it could bring its weapon to bear, Axel fired off three quick if inaccurate shots, forcing the grey-skinned alien to duck back around the corner in retreat.

"Come on!" Kilu told him.

Axel saw no reason to argue. He followed right behind her as she ran towards the opposite end of the alley. Then she suddenly dug in her heels in a desperate attempt to come to a stop, and he nearly ran into her. Before he could ask her why she'd stopped so suddenly, he looked over her shoulder down to the end of the alley and saw the reason. Two more humanoids were there, their exact species indeterminate in the dark, and they were advancing towards Axel and Kilu with blasters drawn.

He might not like using a blaster himself, but this was no time to indulge in his distaste for firearms and violence. He raised his weapon and fired off several shots at the two newcomers, but as soon as they'd seen him raise his weapon they'd quickly ducked behind two stacks of crates that were piled on either side of the alley's other entrance. Just for good measure, Axel turned around and fired a shot a back down the alley where, sure enough, the first alien had reappeared. The shot forced their pursuer to throw himself behind a large dumpster.

"We're boxed in," Axel told Kilu.

"You're very observant," she noted sarcastically. "There must be another way out of here..."

A few meters ahead of them, in the direction they'd been heading, both of them spotted a ladder, apparently a fire escape, that led up to the roof of the low-lying building on the right-hand side of the alley. They glanced at one another, but then had to duck behind another dumpster themselves as several blaster shots were fired from the far end of the alley.

"We need to get to that ladder!" Axel said as he crouched behind the rusting, stinking garbage receptacle. He fired another shot back towards their first attacker's hiding place to ensure he didn't duck out from under cover and fire upon them.

"I know!" Kilu responded. "You keep our first friend busy. I'll take care of the other two."

Axel frowned in confusion. As far as he could tell, his new client wasn't carrying a weapon.

"How are you going to..." he began to ask, but was cut off as blaster bolts from the two attackers further down the alley whined overhead.

"Just do it!" she told him.

Axel turned and pointed his blaster down the alley, towards the other dumpster where the first attacker had taken cover. He took aim and waited. His heart was pounding, his blood rushing loudly in his ears. He was breathing heavily and could feel that despite the coolness of the evening air, his shirt was soaked with sweat; he had to blink some of it out of his eyes as well. He was prepared for confrontations, but he wasn't used to them; he did his best to fight off a growing panic. It felt like he'd waited several agonizing minutes, when in actual fact only a few seconds had passed before the grey-skinned alien decided to try his luck and poked his head and blaster around the side of his dumpster.

He was greeted by several blaster bolts fired from Axel's weapon, one of which ricocheted off the side of the dumpster and at least managed to singe the creature's sleeve, making it retreat back under cover. At that very moment, Axel heard a crash from behind him. Instinctively, he turned. Kilu was still there, right behind him, concealed by the dumpster. But further down the alley, the high stacks of crates had collapsed upon one another, creating a jumble that effectively blocked that entrance to the alley.

"Come on!" Kilu shouted as she leapt from behind the dumpster and ran towards the ladder.

Axel ran backwards behind her, firing the occasional wild shot at the other dumpster where the first assailant remained hidden, to ensure he kept that way. As they reached the ladder, he urged Kilu to go up first.

"I'll cover you, then toss you the blaster to cover me," he told her.

"Right," she said, then quickly scrambled up the ladder while he fired shots at either end of the alley.

As he did this, and just as Kilu reached the roof of the two-storey building, Alex saw three more humanoids appear at the end of the alley behind the first assailant. Behind him, he could hear the other two attackers angrily tossing aside the crates that blocked their path.

"Quick!" Kilu called from the roof.

Axel tossed the blaster up to her; she caught it and began firing a series of covering shots at either end of the alley that forced their pursuers to all take cover while Axel, his hands slick with sweat, struggled up the ladder. At the top, Kilu grabbed his arm and, with strength that surprised him, hauled him onto the roof.

Where they quickly realized they were just as trapped as they'd been in the alley. The building was surrounded by streets on its other three sides--too far to jump to another building. And back across the alley from which they'd come stood a three-storey building, a floor too high for them to access from the rooftop where they now stood.

"Great," Kilu said. "_Now_ what do we do?"

For the first time since the whole desperate fight had begun, Axel took a deep breath and smiled. "Just keep an eye out for any of them coming up that ladder," she said to her. "I'll have us out of here in a couple of minutes," he added confidently.

His client looked at him, a mixture of doubt and surprise on her face. "What, are you a magician or something?"

Axel just kept smiling. He reached down to his belt buckle, which was a large, gaudy metallic number studded with several cheap imitation jewels. Kilu watched as Axel first pushed one of the jewels from one side of the buckle to the other with his thumb, then pressed in another jewel with his forefinger. He then turned towards the hangar district and watched the sky expectantly. Kilu turned from him in time to see the grey-skinned alien's head appear at the top of the ladder. A quick blaster shot convinced him of the folly of attempting to pursue his quarry onto the roof.

"We can't stay here forever," Kilu remarked, then frowned as she heard a high-pitched whine and roar in the distance.

She kept glancing back at the ladder, but less and less so as, behind her, a saucer-shaped freighter with two forward mandibles and a port-side, glass-enclosed cockpit rose up above the hangar district and slowly closed in on their position. She tensed as she prepared to meet another threat, but then she noticed Axel standing calmly beside her and watching the ship approach with an unmistakable expression of pride on his face.

"Let me guess," she said. "Your ship?"

Axel nodded. "The _Nomad_. A Corellian YT-1300fp--the smuggler's special."

"Not that you're a smuggler," Kilu remarked as the ship approached. She kept the blaster trained on the top of the ladder.

"Absolutely not," Axel reaffirmed. "And of course, I've made a few modifications to her."

"From what I understand, it wouldn't be a YT-1300 if you didn't," Kilu remarked. "Would these custom modifications happen to include a beckon call system hidden in that hideous belt buckle of yours?"

"Hey, lady," Axel said somewhat indignantly, "this hideous belt buckle just saved your life. So show a little respect, will ya? And it's more than just a beckon call--I can pretty much pilot the ship from here. This isn't the first time it's come in handy."

A few seconds later, the freighter was hovering above the roof, its port-side boarding ramp lowering towards them. Axel and Kilu could hear the agitated shouts of the beings pursuing them emanating from the alleyway. They sounded understandably angry over the prospect of their quarry escaping. Kilu handed the blaster to Axel and he kept it pointed at the top of the ladder as first she, then he, ran up the boarding ramp and into the ship. Axel slapped his hand against the ramp's controls to close it, then ran up to the cockpit, Kilu right on his heels.

"For someone who says he isn't a smuggler," Kilu commented as she settled into the empty co-pilot's seat, "you sure take a lot of smuggler-like precautions. That remote control, the blaster, and your ship--what did you call it? The smuggler's special?"

Axel coaxed his ship into a steep climb through the planet's atmosphere. The steadily-climbing g-forces pushed him and his client back into their seats despite the efforts of the inertial dampeners to compensate.

"Yeah, well, just because you're not a smuggler doesn't mean you don't get mistaken for one," he said as they soared out of the planet's atmosphere.

"Isn't this cockpit on the wrong side of the ship?" Kilu asked.

Axel cast an appreciative glance her way. So she knew a lot more about ship types than most people did. Not everything, though. "It's a less popular configuration for the YT-1300," he told her, then shrugged. "My father was left-handed--runs in the family--and he said he always felt more comfortable with the cockpit on this side. Uh-oh."

Kilu looked at him sharply as a warning light began flashing on his console, accompanied by a far-from-comforting steady beeping noise. "What is it?" she asked.

"Looks like your friends have themselves an RV," Axel remarked; despite his attempt at levity, his voice was tight. "The computer doesn't recognize the ship's configuration, but I'll bet every credit you've promised me that she's armed."

"That would be consistent with their behavior and my luck," Kilu grumbled. "You can outrun them, right?"

Axel stole a glance at her. Once again, her body and face were utterly impassive, but those brown eyes of hers hinted at the fear she was struggling to contain. It was a reflection of his own.

"I can _outmaneuver_ them," he said. "I hope," he added in a less certain-sounding undertone. "Once we get into hyperspace, we'll lose them."

"Anything I can do to help?" she asked.

"Use the Force," he said. "Any way you can or want to, I'm fine with it." He stole another glance at her and was pleased to see the genuine surprise registered on her features as she realized that he wasn't joking.

"What are you talking..." she began to say.

"Oh, come on," he said as he turned in his seat and punched some figures into the navicomputer. "How else did you make that pile of crates fall over, when they were several meters away from you? You're a Jedi."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see, with some satisfaction, that her mouth had dropped open slightly. But his satisfaction was cut short as his ship was suddenly rocked by a violent explosion.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"Damn," Axel swore as his ship settled back into its previous flight path after it recovered from the blaster impact against the deflector shields. "I knew they'd be armed. Shields at eighty-five percent. Hang on."

Axel guided the _Nomad _into a sharp, sudden turn. "There. That ought to throw them for a few seconds." He then instinctively grabbed for his chair to steady himself as the ship was rocked by an explosion, yet another sign that their armed adversaries had not given up their pursuit. "Or not. Shields at seventy percent," he said grimly. "Whatever they're firing at us, it's powerful." He then reached forward and punched an evasive sequence into the controls.

"Whoa," Kilu said, gripping the arms of the co-pilot's seat tightly as the ship suddenly lurched to one side, then the other. Another explosion rocked the ship, and Axel threw the freighter into yet another evasive maneuver, a quick dive followed by a sharp starboard turn.

"Can't you pull a Jedi mind trick on them?" Axel remarked. "Or Force-push them away or something?"

"A whole _starship_?" she said incredulously. "I'm just an apprentice--that's a little beyond me! And how do you know so much about the Jedi, anyway?"

"Space travel can be long and boring," he told her. "I use the time to catch up on my reading." He glanced over and saw an incredulous look on her face. "Seriously," he insisted, then was rocked in his chair as yet another laser blast shook the ship.

"How long will the hyperdrive calculations take?" Kilu asked, her Jedi aura of unflappable calm rapidly eroding.

"Flying through hyperspace ain't like polishing your lightsaber, sweetheart," Axel told her. "Without precise calculations, we could fly right through a star..."

"I _know _that," she told him sharply. "I didn't ask you _why, _I asked you _when_..."

The navicomputer situated just behind and to the left of the pilot's chair gave a short, self-satisfied _breep_.

"Now would be good, wouldn't you say?" Axel commented. He pulled the hyperdrive lever into his console, and outside the ship, the stars suddenly elongated as the freighter made the jump to hyperspace and safety.

* * *

Axel turned in his pilot's chair as a series of whistles and beeps erupted from the corridor behind the cockpit. "Don't take that tone with me, Arf," Axel snapped at the droid that was motoring down the corridor towards the cockpit. The droid was barrel-shaped and was primarily white with a few black vertical stripes on its body. Its conical-shaped head swivelled to the right as its video sensor registered someone sitting in the co-pilot's seat. It vocalized a series of whistles and beeps that sounded to the young Jedi who was sitting there like an expression of surprise followed by a query.

"I didn't bring those guys after us. It was our lovely guest here," Axel said, gesturing towards Kilu. "Kilu Branon, this is my much put-upon agromech droid, R4-E6. I just call him Arf."

"Hello, Arf," Kilu politely addressed the droid.

The R4 unit chirped a curt greeting, then swiveled its video sensor back towards Axel. A series of disgruntled-sounding noises indicated what the droid thought of its nickname. Then the droid continued with a series of beeps and whistles that again sounded to Kilu like it was asking a question.

"Well, see what you can do with it," Axel said with a shrug. "Worst case scenario, we'll just have to get a replacement in our next port-of-call. Or, possibly our _second _port-of-call," he said, remembering than their next stop was supposed to be in Imperial territory, and he didn't want to stay there any longer than was absolutely necessary. If he was going there at all. The droid made another noise that sounded like a dismissive snort, then went into reverse and retreated down the corridor.

"Is there a problem?" Kilu asked.

"No," Axel said, then turned to her and frowned. "Yes. But it's not what you think. Our sub-space beacon got damaged, but it's a redundant system, so we've still got one working. It's you and this whole mission you're on that I'm worried about. And by the way, acting as your bodyguard's going to cost you extra."

"My _bodyguard_...?" Kilu said incredulously. Then she laughed--a short, sharp, mocking laugh. "You think a _Jedi _needs a _bodyguard_?"

"You seemed to back planet-side, there," he remarked sharply. "How is it I was the only one with a weapon? Don't you carry a lightsaber or something?"

"Like this?" she said, pulling the lightsaber hilt from its clip on her belt and holding it up. "I didn't exactly want to advertise the presence of a Jedi on this mission." She returned the lightsaber hilt to her belt.

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" Axel said. "Seems like the bad guys know all about your mission, whatever it is."

"They seem to know far too much," Kilu said in a low murmur. "Far too much..."

Then, as Axel watched, her facade of Jedi calm seemed to crumble. Her lower lip trembled, and she blinked rapidly as tears welled up in her eyes. Suddenly, she was no longer a Jedi, but a frightened young woman, vulnerable and overwhelmed; looking at her, he realized she was barely into her twenties. Axel silent admonished himself for taking such a hard line with her. If what she'd said was true, it meant she was still in training, with very little field experience. Which begged the question, what was she doing on some mission all on her own? But Axel decided that question could wait as he watched the turbulent emotions roiling across his client's lovely features.

"What is it?" Axel asked her, the harsher tone he'd been using vanishing, replaced by a far more sympathetic one.

"They killed him," she said, so softly he had to lean closer to hear her.

"Killed who?" Axel asked.

"My Master, Cylus Vax," Kilu replied. A single tear ran down her cheek. "They ambushed us in Carnaxa. Vax said it would be wise to start from a point distant from our destination, but.. but they knew. They ambushed us, and... they killed him. I'm just an apprentice!" she said, her hands outstretched as if she was pleading with the universe... or with the Force. "And... and now... I'm all alone, and..." She was breathing rapidly, and more tears spilled from her eyes. Axel reached out and placed what he intended to be a reassuring hand upon her arm.

"You're _not_ alone..." he started to say.

"No!" she said, pulling her arm away as though he'd delivered an electric shock to her. "Leave me be. Please. I just... need a moment..." she said, her slender brows furrowing. As he watched, she closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Then, in a voice so low that he could barely hear her, she began to recite a mantra. "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force..."

Kilu repeated the lines several times while Axel watched, fascinated. As she did so, her expression returned to its previous, impassive state. She blinked her eyes open and calmly brushed the remnants of the tears from her face. She turned to face Axel and found him glancing expectantly around the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Looking around for this... Vax guy," he said. "Don't they do that? If they're struck down? Reappear as a ghost or something?"

A sad smile briefly appeared on Kilu's lips. "Not every Jedi, no. Cylus Vax was only recently made a Knight himself. Normally he wouldn't have been assigned an apprentice yet, but our numbers are so small." She sighed. "And now they are one fewer," she noted softly. "But I'm determined to see our mission through to the end," she said as she turned to face Axel. "That's why I hired you. I trust you're still going to live up to the bargain we made?"

Axel didn't respond immediately. He stared at her long and hard for a moment. Jedi or not, she was still beautiful, and the extraordinary display of inner strength she'd just shown had certainly raised his opinion of her. He didn't often get a chance to spend a few days in hyperspace with someone this easy on the eyes. Nevertheless, getting mixed up with Jedi and alien thugs and secret missions wasn't the line of work Bergeron and Son had ever gone in for.

"You _will_ get paid," she said, with just a hint, but a discernible hint, of contempt in her voice. "I'm a Jedi. An apprentice Jedi, yes, but Jedi nonetheless. My word..."

"It's not the money," he said curtly, interrupting her. "No amount of money is going to buy my way out of an Imperial interrogation room, which is _exactly_ where I'll end up if I get caught bringing a junior Jedi into Empire territory. And in case it hasn't occurred to you, your fate will be just as bad, if not worse."

"My fate is irrelevant," she said calmly, and Axel couldn't hide how taken aback he was. Only a few moments ago, she'd been on the verge of breaking down completely. Now she was talking about torture and death as though they were mere inconveniences.

"Yeah, fine, good for you, but _my _death isn't irrelevant, at least not to me," he told her. "Look, I'm sure you know a lot about the Force, but you don't know _squat_ about business. A big part of it is identifying and managing _risk_--knowing what level of risk is acceptable for you personally, and for your business. In case you haven't clued in yet, this whole fiasco is _way _beyond my acceptable level of risk!"

"So you're not a mercenary," Kilu said with barely disguised contempt. "You're simply a coward."

He felt as though she'd struck him. He stared at her incredulously. "Lady, I make a living by going out into a sub-zero vacuum in a glorified tin can. I'm not a coward. I'm just... not a hero," he concluded, shaking his head. He stole a glance at her and found her glaring at him, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What did you during the rebellion?" she demanded.

He stared right back at her, offended by the question. "My dad and I kept our heads down and did our jobs," he said defensively.

She made a disgusted, dismissive sound, then muttered, "Collaborators."

"Oh, _please!_" Axel exclaimed impatiently. "Who are you to get all holier-than-thou about the rebellion? You must have barely been out of diapers!"

"My father _died _in the Battle of Yavin," she replied sharply.

But he caught the tremor in her voice, the note of sorrow, of loss. It was a loss with which he could readily identify. "I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "That must have been rough, losing your dad when you were that young."

His unexpected sympathy seemed to take the ions out of her hyperdrive. Rather than continuing with her barbed analysis of his life, Kilu grew quiet. Several minutes went by before she spoke again. "Can I ask you something?" she said. Her voice had lost much of the acidity it had possessed only a few moments before.

Axel sighed and shrugged. "Why not?" he said in a resigned tone.

"You said you're averse to risk," she reminded him, "but then you said space flight is risky--incredibly so. How do you reconcile the two? Why are you out here?"

Axel glanced out at the strange, beautiful lights and shapes that rushed past the cockpit window as the ship journeyed through hyperspace. He sighed softly and felt his irritation with her pointed questions slowly dissipate. A slight smile of contentment appeared on his lips.

"I guess I love it," he murmured.

"Is that _all_ you love?" she asked him.

He felt his jaw tighten as he returned his gaze to her. "It wasn't always," he said quietly. "But it's all I have left."

For a moment, just for a moment, he thought he saw those expressive brown eyes of hers soften. But whatever was there vanished and was replaced by a look of cold, hard steel. The mission, he could tell, was everything to her, and whatever price had to be paid to bring it to its necessary conclusion was all justifiable in the end. Even if he was part of said price. That's all he was to her, he realized, as he watched her regarding him much as she might a bug under a microscope. All those questions of hers--they were attempts to determine a way to motivate him to keep the original bargain.

He suddenly realized what a fool he'd been, to be taken in by her desperate plea and her pretty face. Like he'd ever stand a chance with a Jedi! And even if he did, why would he want to? What had she said in that mantra of hers? There is no emotion, there is no passion. That was her goal, or so it sounded to him: to feel absolutely nothing. For anyone. Especially for some unwashed freighter jock. He was nothing more than a means to an end. And yet, there'd been that moment, when the facade had dropped, and he'd seen a real person there. A vulnerable person, someone who might need... comfort, perhaps. A helping hand. A shoulder to cry on. Just like he did sometimes.

Suddenly, Axel felt incredibly tired. The adrenaline seemed to vanish from his system in an instant, leaving him exhausted, his limbs shaky and aching, his eyes dry as sandpaper. He raised his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes for a moment.

"Look, it's been a long day," he said to her. "Let me sleep on it. If nothing else, I can get you to the closest border system for what you've already paid me, which is, by the way, an _incredible_ bargain. You can get to B'Tel from there." He glanced at the auto-pilot settings one last time, then rose from the pilot's chair.

"I wouldn't want to inconvenience you," Kilu said, but the earlier venom had disappeared from her voice; instead, Axel heard her disappointment, as well as weariness. Evidently she was tired as well.

"The forward starboard-side cabin is mine," he told her, then covered his mouth with his hand as he yawned. "The aft is yours. Make yourself comfortable. Or whatever it is you Jedi do."

"I'll meditate," she said.

"Like I said, whatever," Axel said tiredly, rolling his eyes as he turned to walk down the corridor, away from the cockpit and his troublesome passenger.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Axel Bergeron walked into the _Nomad_'s passenger lounge several hours later to find Kilu Branon already there, sitting placidly upon the curved bench behind the room's round table. As he continued to blink sleep out of his eyes and tuck his white shirt into his khaki pants, he noted with some annoyance that the young Jedi looked remarkably well-rested, especially in comparison to him. And, of course, beautiful as well. None of which improved his mood.

"Caf?" he growled at her as he shuffled over to the counter that comprised the ship's kitchen.

"No thank you," she said politely. "Jedi avoid artificial stimulants."

"I meant did you _make _any," Axel grumbled, "but I guess you kind of answered that question."

The freighter pilot took a packet of the ground, roasted beans used to make the hot beverage out of a cabinet. He tore the packet open and inhaled the rich, warm aroma of the caf grounds and sighed in anticipation of his first cup of the mild stimulant.

"I... owe you an apology," Kilu said from behind him.

"Oh?" Axel replied without turning around.

"I said some ill-considered things to you yesterday," she said. "I'm sorry. I was upset."

Axel turned around to face her, his arms crossed over his chest. Of course she had to butter him up if she was going to convince him to fly her on this cockamamie mission into Imperial space. He tried to tell himself that he was wise to her. Then he looked in her eyes, those expressive brown eyes of hers that couldn't lie about her feelings like the rest of her could, and he saw that her apology was genuine. Or maybe he just wanted to believe it was. _Always give a customer the benefit of the doubt_, his dad used to say,_especially if they pay in advance_.

"Yeah, well, getting shot at always puts me in a bad mood too, so I guess you're excused," he said, leaving the caf brewing as he walked away from the counter and sat down at the table. "Not that I've ever had the pleasure of that experience before yesterday..."

"Thank you," Kilu said.

She then favored him with a brief smile that revealed a dimple in her left cheek and made his stomach flutter, and not because he hadn't had breakfast yet. _Damn_, Axel thought, regretting not for the first time that his troublesome passenger was so attractive. He kept silently wishing that she wasn't, but in his heart he knew the wish was insincere. He forced himself to look away from her, as if that could diminish the effect she had on him.

"Have you thought any further about living up to our deal?" she prompted him.

Axel stole a glance at her. Yet again he noticed how her face and body language betrayed nothing, save for those dark brown eyes of hers. In them, he could plainly see her very earnest hope, as well as the fear she worked so hard to suppress. Fear, after all, was an enemy of every Jedi. Fear was a negative emotion that led to the dark side of the Force. Or so Axel understood from what he'd read. It was strange to think of something like the Force, a mysterious invisible form of energy--or whatever it was--that flowed between all animate and inanimate matter. Or something like that. It was supposedly around all the time, yet Axel could not and would not ever know it was there. But Jedi could sense it and use it, and that was what set them apart from all other beings in the universe.

"What's it like?" he asked her.

She blinked at the strange question that seemingly came out of nowhere. "What is _what _like?" she responded in a mildly puzzled tone.

"The Force. Being in touch with it. Frankly, if it wasn't for you Jedi, I'd never believe it even exists."

"Oh, it exists," she told him, a slight smile appearing on her lips as she nodded once. She took a deep breath. "It's... amazing. It's like... seeing an additional layer of light around everything..." She raised one hand. "And you can... touch that layer of light, with your mind, and work with it, coax it..." She closed her eyes. "...you persuade it to work with you, to cooperate with you..."

Axel frowned as he heard a noise coming from behind him, from the kitchen counter. He turned and gasped softly when he saw the caf pot floating, tilting as if of its own accord as it poured some of its dark brown steaming contents into a ceramic mug. The mug then began to float across the room, towards the table.

"Oh, I nearly forgot," Kilu said without opening her eyes, and the mug halted in mid-air. "Milk? Sweetener?"

"Neither," Axel responded quietly, "I take it black." The mug continued its journey towards the table, then gently lowered to the tabletop in front of him. "Impressive," he said.

Kilu opened her eyes and shrugged. "That's nothing. A parlor trick. Though it does take more concentration than knocking over a few crates in an alley."

Axel noticed the slight strain in her voice, as well as the few beads of perspiration that had appeared on her forehead. Despite her dismissive words, that display of mastery over the Force took more of a toll on her than she wanted to admit. It reminded him that she was still just a learner, what the Jedi used to call a padawan in the old days. Nevertheless, it stuck him as tactless to call attention to it.

"Yeah, well, if this Jedi thing doesn't work out for you, I know a few spaceport diners where you could get some work," he told her as he raised the mug to his lips.

He was rewarded by her laughter, a brief, light, burbling sound, like a brook gushing in summer. He felt yet another by-now familiar stab in his gut and tried to remind himself of all his father's advice and warnings regarding his weakness for the fairer sex. Then, like a temperate planet's sun disappearing behind a cloud, her smile and laughter faded, and her face took on the serious, emotionless cast that was more familiar to him, if not more preferred.

"You haven't answered my question," she prompted him.

Axel sighed and set his mug down on the table. "I can get us through the Imperial border patrols. It's just a matter of complicating our path through hyperspace--avoid the obvious routes where they might block our path and make us drop into realspace," he said, but then his tone grew more dubious, one hand rising and spreading in exasperation. "But when I drop to sub-light, it'll be another story. The Imperials are even more paranoid these days than they used to be, and that's saying something. I can't evade all their patrol ships, and it's easier if I just let the first one we encounter board me and have done with it. But with _you_ on board..."

Her expression visibly brightened. Evidently, if he was asking about practical considerations and tactics, she thought, he was considering going through with their deal after all.

"My Master and I worked out a cover story," she told him. "There are several people with relatives still living on the other side of the border. I'll just be another one of them, heading there for a visit. I even have forged identity papers," she said, patting a pocket in her tan-colored tunic.

"Okay," Axel responded, his tone still dubious. "But I think they'll get suspicious when they spot that light saber."

"We can hide it on the ship," she told him. "Put it in beside one of the power couplings. It won't show up except on the most exacting scans, and even then it'll just look like some sort of power tool."

Axel took another sip of caf and cast another searching, narrow-lidded glance at her. "Who's the other passenger we'll be picking up?" he asked.

Kilu inhaled, hesitating for a moment. She pressed her lips together briefly. Axel was coming to realize that she did that whenever she was about to make an important decision. Rather than answer him, however, it was her turn to respond with a question that seemingly didn't follow from the conversation preceding it.

"Do you know why I chose you rather than one of the other pilots?" she asked him.

"No, why?"

"I reached out with the Force to each of you," she told him. "You were the only one in whom I sensed no deception."

"Well, thanks," he said earnestly.

"It's not a compliment, it's a fact," she told him flatly. "I'm just saying that for most people, trust has to be earned over time. But for Jedi... it can be instantaneous."

Axel pondered that. "Are you telling me that you trust me?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Which is why I'm willing to tell you everything. But I'm still a Jedi in training... so I hope you're not going to prove me wrong about you."

Did she know, he wondered, what effect she had when she gazed at him with that earnest, pleading look in those big brown eyes of hers? Probably. As far as he knew, she was well aware of her effect on him and was milking in for all it was worth. Maybe she was even pulling one of those Jedi mind tricks on him. Perhaps she was, in reality, utterly hideous, her beauty just a Force illusion to win him over. Maybe she was really a Hutt. He tried to imagine her in a grossly fat, slug-like body with no legs, but couldn't manage it. He looked over at her and saw a mix of beauty, hope, and determination in her face. If it was a Jedi mind trick, it was a damned good one. Way beyond what a mere Jedi apprentice should be capable of. No, she was exactly what she appeared to be: one and two-thirds meters of idealism and female beauty, and that just made things worse.

He let out a long sigh. "That hyperlane goes two ways, sweetheart. If I'm going to haul some Jedi into Imperial space on some secret mission, then I want to know everything. Starting _now_."

She nodded. "All right. Do you know what cortosis is?" she asked him.

Axel frowned as he searched his mind. "Some sort of... rare metal, isn't it?"

"Extremely rare," she said, "and thankfully so. It's one of the very few substances in the galaxy that is resistant to light sabers." She paused as she let that bit of information sink in to Axel's mind, watching him sit up a little straighter to indicate that he understood the implications. "Even worse, it will temporarily cause a light saber to short circuit." Kilu took a deep breath as the implications of her words began to affect her, as well. "Recently, some of our agents within the Empire reported that a source of cortosis has been discovered on B'Tel Four. With the Jedi rising again, the Empire is quite anxious to mine the cortosis and use it against us. The government of B'Tel Four sees this as an opportunity to seek better terms with the Imperial government. They've been threatening to secede to the New Republic."

Axel considered everything she'd said. "That just sounds like a bargaining position," the space-faring businessman remarked.

"That's what the politicos on Courscant thought too, but the Halassians--that's what the inhabitants of B'Tel Four call themselves--have been sending surreptitious feelers out to the New Republic government. That's where I come in, and where I'm now going to choose to trust you," she said, and locked her eyes upon his with an extremely intense look.

Though he wasn't Force-sensitive, Axel sensed that she was once again reaching out with the Force to probe him. It was something about the sudden intensity of her stare, and the way her slender brows furrowed, that gave him that impression. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Er... can Jedi use the Force to, uh... read minds?" he asked her. "I've never been clear on that."

"Only extremely advanced Jedi masters," she confessed, the intense expression on her face relaxing. "But early in our training, even a mere apprentice such as myself learns how to sense emotions... and intentions," she told him.

_Oh great_, Axel thought, well aware that he possessed a few emotions and intentions regarding his attractive Jedi passenger that he'd rather she _didn't _sense. He thought he saw one corner of her mouth twitch upwards, and he suddenly felt his throat constrict. He raised his mug to his lips and drank some more caf as nonchalantly as he could manage.

"Dare I ask what you can sense in me?" he said, managing a casual tone of which he was quietly proud.

"Enough to still make me think I can trust you," she told him, with that knowing smile still on her face. "In _some_ regards. So I will. The Halassians have indicated that they want to meet with representatives of the New Republic on Coruscant. My Master and I had been tasked with traveling to B'Tel Four to escort their Foreign Minister back to the capital for a series of meetings--possibly leading to the B'Tel system joining the Republic."

"Sounds simple enough," Axel said.

"It was supposed to be," Kilu said with a sigh. "It seemed that way before the ambush..."

"I'm kind of surprised the Empire doesn't just strong-arm the Halassians," Axel said.

"I'm sure they'd like to," Kilu agreed. "Years ago, Leia Organa Solo told them that the more the Empire tightened its grip, the more systems would slip through their fingers. Lately, they're finding that's true. More and more systems are declaring their independence, or joining the Republic. The Empire doesn't have enough resources anymore to force them all to stay in line. So they have to tread more delicately than they used to."

Axel stood up from his seat and began pacing across the passenger lounge. "With the B'Tel government, maybe," he pointed out. "With you and me, it would be another matter entirely. Sounds to me like your cover, no, your whole _mission_ was blown. Those thugs that were chasing us have probably identified you, me, and this ship and sent all that information back to the Empire. They'll be expecting us!"

"It's a possibility," Kilu said. Then she noticed Axel's raised brows and hard stare, and sighed. "Okay, more than that, it's a likelihood," she admitted softly, and lowered her gaze to the tabletop. "I was hoping... maybe you'd be able to find a way around that?" she said, raising her head to look at him, gazing at him with those pleading brown eyes again...

Axel gave his head a shake to clear it and turned away from her, trying to limit the effect she had on him. "Yeah," he told her, "that's easy. I'll turn this crate around, and you can go back to your Jedi teammates and tell them the mission's a wash."

"I can't do that," she told him in a calm tone that belied the determination beneath it. "This is too important to the Jedi, to the Republic, to... to the memory of my Master..." She paused for a moment to regain control over her emotions. "Please. There _must_ be a way."

And once again, her eyes were upon him. They were locked on him like a tractor beam, drawing him in, and he knew he lacked the strength to pull away. "I just _know _I'm going to regret this..." he said, and returned to the table.

He tapped a power button on the table edge, and a holographic display matrix slowly came into focus on the flat surface. A set of controls appeared on the tabletop in front of Alex, and he used them to bring up a star chart of the galaxy. He then made the display zoom in towards the region that represented the border territory of the remnant of the Galactic Empire, then closer still to the region around the border system of B'Tel. He studied the three-dimensional display closely with the eyes of an experienced pilot. He then adjusted the display so it more closely focused on the B'Tel system.

"Hm," he said after a couple of minutes' study of the chart.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"A comet," he said, indicating a particular feature that started flashing when he pointed to it. He then looked at Kilu and smiled, but she only stared blankly at him, then shook her head. "Don't they teach you Jedi anything besides how to levitate stuff and hypnotize people? Hiding in a comet's ion tail is a classic stealth maneuver; you're pretty much invisible to long-range sensors. Of course, you're effectively blind while you're there yourself, and it can drain the deflectors if you're not careful, but it's our best chance. This one is passing right through the B'Tel system, starting in a couple of days. We jump out of hyperspace right next to it, follow it to its closest pass of B'Tel Four, and slip in before anyone knows we're there."

She smiled, prompting yet another deliciously painful twist in his gut, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she reached out and placed one hand upon his, an action that set his heart racing.

"Thank you," she said, gratitude and relief mixing in her voice. "I _knew _I was right about you."

Axel shook his head, doing his best to ignore her compliment and her gratitude. "There are still a lot of holes in that plan," he muttered. "They could be waiting for us in orbit, or on the surface. They might have gotten to this foreign minister you're supposed to meet..."

"Just get me planet-side," she told him. "The Force and I will take care of the rest."

Axel stared at her dubiously. She might have faith in her mysterious religion, but he didn't share it. To him, it felt like they were flying straight into a well-laid trap. But now when he looked at her face, he could see genuine appreciation there, and he knew it was hopeless for him to resist that. He was no hero, he knew, but he realized he'd probably fly straight into the heart of a supernova if she asked him to. He silently said an apology to the spirit of his father; it wasn't the first time he'd done that on this trip, and he knew it wasn't going to be the last.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"I don't like it," Axel told her.

Kilu turned in the co-pilot's chair where she was seated to stare at him in surprise. "What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously. "It was your plan--and it went off flawlessly!"

"That's what I don't like," he replied.

The plan had indeed come to fruition exactly as she'd said. He'd guided the _Nomad _through hyperspace skilfully, taking an even more indirect route than hyperspace travel normally required to avoid any potential intercepts the Imperials might have attempted. They'd dropped out of hyperspace the day before, just a few hundred kilometres from the comet--practically right on top of it, in astronavigational terms--and had promptly secreted themselves in its tail. Arf had complained vociferously, but the droid had kept their deflectors working as they closed in on B'Tel Four. Then, just over an hour ago, they'd left the comet when it had passed within a few hundred thousand kilometres of the planet. Axel had promptly piloted his ship, without incident, to the planet's main spaceport, a city called B'Ost that was just a few kilometres from the planetary capital, B'Omora. It had all gone smoothly--perfectly. And that's what bothered him.

"I've never done anything perfect in my entire life," he told Kilu. "Never. I don't believe in perfection. In my experience, the universe _abhors_ perfection."

"The Force doesn't," Kilu countered.

"Yeah, right, and the dark side is part of that perfection," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He turned to glance at her, just in time to see a subtle tremor run through her slender frame.

"Don't talk about the dark side that lightly," she hissed at him. "It's _not _a joking matter," she added emphatically.

"Sorry..." he said, frowning. Clearly, he'd touched a nerve; this seemed like more to him than the usual Jedi disdain for the dark side of the Force.

"I sent an encrypted message to the minister just before we entered the atmosphere," Kilu said, obviously preferring to leave the subject behind. "Assuming he received it, I'll be meeting him at the arranged rendezvous point in a half hour."

"Wrong," he told her. "_We'll _be meeting him at the rendezvous point," he said as he pulled his blaster from its holster and checked its charge.

"Axel..." Kilu began to say.

"Forget it," he told her. "I've come this far, I'm going all the way."

"Aren't you afraid of walking into this trap you keep talking about?" she asked him.

"Best way to find a trap is to spring it," he said.

"Where'd you hear _that _expression?" she asked him.

"I made it up just now," he said. "It sounded good though, didn't it?"

His remark was rewarded with one of her rare, amused smiles that reminded him why he'd agreed to accompany her this far on her foolhardy mission in the first place. His stomach had been busy twisting itself into a knot ever since they'd left New Republic space, and he was certain every shirt in his wardrobe was now stained with the cold sweat he'd been perspiring for just as long. _I'm a businessman, not a secret agent! _he kept protesting silently, yet here he was, accompanying a Jedi on what was sure to be a suicidal mission. _At least there's no one left who'll miss me when I'm gone_, he thought, with a pang of guilt for once again thinking it was for the best that his father was no longer alive to see him doing something this risky.

In a way, though, what he'd said about springing the trap was true. The anticipation was slowly killing him. He wanted to stumble over the trip wire and finally have done with it. He'd quietly resolved to go down fighting; no Imperial torture chamber for him. Blasting away at Imperial Stormtroopers beside a beautiful woman warrior--there were worse ways to die. Though frankly, nodding off in a bed surrounded by fat grandchildren had always held a certain appeal for him, whenever he gave thought to preferred methods of death... which, before the last few days, hadn't been that often.

"According to the map, the rendezvous point is about ten minutes' walk away," Kilu said as she studied a console display beside the co-pilot's chair; her words snapped Axel out of his reverie.

"Right," he said. "So we leave here twenty minutes ahead of schedule and take an indirect route."

Again, Kilu smiled at him. He was, not for the first time, astonished at her preternatural calm in a situation that was wearing thin every single nerve in his possession. "Ever the starship pilot," she teased him, "even on the ground."

Axel nodded, his eyes still staring out of the cockpit's thick windows. He gazed into the darkness of the hangar, expecting to see the glint of his ship's landing lights reflecting off of several Imperial Stormtroopers' immaculate white armor. He then felt a hand on his shoulder, gasped, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Okay, you're as jumpy as an Oxemican Hwachee," Kilu said as she kneaded Axel's tense shoulder muscle with her hand. "You're going to have to calm down if you want to come with me. I can't have you on a hair trigger--you could jeopardize the entire mission."

"I know," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to this," he admitted.

"To be honest, neither am I," she replied calmly.

"Then how come _you're_ as cool as a summer's day on Hoth?" he asked her.

"I'm a Jedi," she replied with a shrug and a smile. "We're taught techniques to deal with negative emotions... like fear."

"I'd love to learn a few of them sometime," Axel muttered.

Every muscle in his body felt tense and ached. Except, he noticed, the shoulder muscle that Kiru was still massaging. Then she rose from the co-pilot's chair so she was standing behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders. She kneaded his tense muscles, prompting a low appreciative groan from him. Her fingers were surprisingly strong, but tender as well. How long had it been since a woman had touched him in some way? Too damn long, he reflected. Then, to his great disappointment, she stopped.

"We'd better get going. Sorry I had to give you the short version," she told him. Her hands were resting on his back, gently rubbing still, almost like a caress.

"Is that something they teach you at Jedi school?" he asked her.

Kilu laughed softly. "As a matter of fact, yes," she told him. "There's a longer, in-depth massage we're taught that goes on for a couple of hours."

"Sounds terrific," Axel commented as he rose from his pilot's chair.

"Tell you what," Kilu said as they walked down the passageway from the cockpit into the ship. "I'll give you the full treatment on the trip back."

Axel nearly tripped over his own feet. "Oh. Right. _Massage_ treatment..." he muttered as he recovered his balance. Then he suddenly understood the hopeful message of confidence she was relaying through that promise. He decided to convey a similar one to her. "Okay," he said. "You do that on the trip back, and... I'll make you my dad's recipe for Karkan ribenes."

"It's a deal," Kilu said, favoring him with another one of her rare smiles. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Axel said.

He pressed a command on the door console; the loading bay ramp lowered with a low, steady whine. Outside the ship, the hangar was calm and quiet. Axel crossed his fingers as he followed Kilu down the ramp, hoping that things would stay that way.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." he muttered as he followed the young Jedi into the night.

* * *

"Where isss Cylusss Vaxss?"

The Halassian Foreign Minister stared hard at them both. He'd pulled back the hood he'd been using to conceal himself, revealing his reptilian features. His skin consisted of scales in a mottled tan and dark grey-green pattern. His mouth was broad; a forked tongue occasionally poked out of it when he spoke. The eyes that were fixed upon Kilu and Axel were golden, with narrow vertical pupils... and they were filled with suspicion. They were standing in a darkened alley; an old amber light above the back entrance to a spacedock tavern provided the sole illumination in the alleyway.

"Cylus Vax is dead," Kilu told him bluntly.

The Halassian's gold eyes widened at that. Kilu had known the question would be asked, and had considered lying, but Jedi were taught that telling the truth, pure and simple, even bluntly, was the best course of action in most circumstances. Not always, but most of the time.

"We are dissscovered!" the Minister hissed.

"We don't know that for sure," Kilu told him. "My pilot and I have made it through the border and here to your planet without incident. The attack occurred on another planet many light-years away... it may have been an unfortunate coincidence."

"Coinsssidenssse?" the Minister said contemptuously, his forked tongue flickering out of his mouth--something Axel was coming to recognize as sign of agitation in this species. "Halassssiansss do not believe in coinsssidensssesss." He waved one clawed, scaly hand at them dismissively. "The negotiationsss are canssselled." He turned to go.

"Minister T'Lon, wait, please!" Kilu said, but the reptilian humanoid ignored her.

Axel moved quickly, stepping around the Minister and placing himself directly in his path.

"Hold on, pal," he said, one hand raised.

"Out of my way, human," the Halassian growled at him.

"Not until you listen to what we have to say," Axel told him, glaring back into those narrow, gold reptilian eyes. "This is a Jedi you're turning your back on. A _Jedi_. Do you know how many of them exist? A few dozen. And yet they sent not one, but _two _to come here to provide you with escort. And lost one in the process."

"Becaussse of the cortosssisss," the Minister hissed dismissively.

"Hey, I'm not saying there wasn't some enlightened self-interest involved," Axel admitted. "But that cortosis is your people's ticket out from under the thumb of the Empire, and you're just going to walk away from this?"

"Yesss," T'Lon replied.

"Oh, really?" Axel responded, his brows raised. He crossed his arms over his chest. "And what do you think it will do to your chances of higher office when word gets out that you got cold feet about this?"

The Halassian's eye slits narrowed even further. "Are you attempting to _blackmail _me?" he demanded, leaning closer to Axel.

"Absolutely not," the pilot responded, hands raised. "But if you show up to work tomorrow instead of flying off to Coruscant, questions are going to be asked, am I right? And regardless of what plausible explanation you come up with, people are always going to wonder about what really happened. And your political enemies--and don't try to tell me you don't have them--will have a field day when they discover the truth, won't they?"

The Halassian Foreign Minister stared at Axel for several moments while Kilu held her breath. Then the reptilian humanoid's shoulders slumped and he hissed out his species' version of a sigh.

"You make your point well, human," T'Lon said, resentment and resignation mingling in his voice. "You are an able pilot? With a fassst ship?"

Axel shrugged. "I made it all the way here, didn't I?"

The Minister nodded. "Very well. Lead on."

"Thanks," Kilu whispered to him as they walked down the alley, the Halassian Foreign Minister, his hood back up, following a couple of paces behind them. "Nicely done."

"It's all about zeroing in on someone's self-interest. I learned from the best," he whispered back. She cast an inquisitive glance at him. "My father was a master negotiator," he said reverently.

"I wish I'd had a chance to meet him," Kilu said in a sympathetic tone.

And Axel had the uncanny feeling, at that point, that his father would have actually liked her. A lot.

* * *

As they stepped into the hangar, Axel pressed one of the cheap imitation jewels on his gaudy belt buckle, and the _Nomad_'s port side boarding ramp began to lower.

"After you, Minister," Axel said, gesturing up the gangway. "The passenger lounge is around the the main corridor to the left, past the cockpit corridor..."

He was interrupted by an audible gasp from Kilu. All his senses went on full alert as he turned to look at her and drew his blaster from its holster. The young Jedi's eyes were open wide, and the blood had drained from her face. He glanced around the hangar and didn't see anything, but he knew better than to discount her sensitivity to the Force. Here he'd been thinking they were, against all odds, actually going to make it, but now the trap had finally been sprung. And judging by her reaction, it was bad. _Very _bad.

"What isss it?" T'Lon asked.

"Just get on board and strap yourself in," Axel said, turning to him. When the alien politician hesitated, he waved at him with his blaster. "Go!"

As the intimidated Foreign Minister scrambled up the boarding ramp, Axel turned back to scan the interior of the hangar. He saw nothing there, but Kilu was staring out across the hangar to a distant second entrance that was behind the freighter's rear exhaust ports.

"Okay, like the lizard said," Axel muttered to her, "what is it?"

Suddenly, Kilu shrugged off her long, dark brown cloak and handed it to him. "Take this," she said, and he was startled to hear the tremor in her usually-confident voice. He was even more startled when she drew her lightsaber from her belt and activated it. The bright green blade of energy emerged from the hilt with a hiss, then hummed in the increasingly eerie silence of the spaceport hangar. The light from the weapon illuminated Kilu's face, allowing Axel to see even more clearly the trepidation displayed there.

"Get on board," she told him, her voice strained. "And get out of here. Get back to Coruscant with T'Lon as fast as your ship can take you."

"I'm not leaving you here!" Axel protested. "What's..."

Then, across the hanger, at the secondary entrance where Kilu had been staring, an answer to all Axel's unasked questions suddenly appeared. A tall human male was standing there. He was dressed in a long cloak, tunic and pants, all as black as space itself. His hair was equally black, and long, and pulled back into a queue behind his head. Even at this distance, Axel could discern some sort of strange black-and-red tattoo pattern upon his face. Most significantly--and worst of all--he, too held a light saber, its blade glowing an angry, threatening bright red.

"No freakin' _way_..." Axel murmured, his eyes widening in shocked recognition. He'd read about them, but he'd never thought he'd see one, and frankly, he'd never wanted to. Especially not now. "A Sith? I thought they were gone."

"The Force cherishes balance," Kilu muttered, striving for more of a detached, philosophical tone than she actually managed to achieve. "Sometimes in a perverse way." She briefly shot a sideways glance at him. "Do what I told you," she said. "Get out of here. I'll hold him off."

"I'm not leaving you," Axel retorted, even though every fibre in his being was screaming at him to do exactly that.

"Yes you are," Kilu said. She suddenly raised her left hand from her light saber's hilt, opened her palm, and gestured towards him.

Axel's eyes went wide and his breath left his body as he found himself flying backwards, up his ship's boarding ramp. He landed unceremoniously on his backside at the top of the gangway. He pushed himself to a sitting position and looked back down the ramp. Kilu looked up at him, bestowing one last, pleading look upon him with those expressive eyes he'd been admiring for several days, then she turned and marched towards the rear of the ship, where the Sith was waiting.

He sat there for a moment, his spirit torn nearly in two. His instincts were screaming at him to get out of there, off the planet and back into the relative safety of hyperspace, as fast as possible--to obey what may very well amount to Kilu's last wish. Another voice in his head, however, emanating from some more noble, selfless side of himself that he would have sworn did not exist before today, was telling him that he couldn't abandon her. That sentiment was mingled with the attraction and, yes, the growing admiration he felt for her, which had just grown a hundredfold a moment ago in the face of her apparent self-sacrifice. The dilemma froze him in place for a moment.

For all his life, he'd been taught to make the sensible choice, to do what was best for the family business. Above all, that meant two things: preserving the ship, and his own skin. His upbringing and his instincts were both urging him to leave. After a moment's consideration, his upbringing and instincts won.

"May the Force be with you," he muttered down the ramp to where Kilu had been standing only a moment before. Then he pushed himself up onto his feet.

"What isss going on?" T'Lon demanded from his seat in the passenger lounge just before Axel disappeared down the cockpit corridor. "I demand to know what isss happening!"

"Listen, bub," Axel snarled, turning on the alien politician. "This is _my _ship. _I'm _the captain here. _I _make the demands. So strap yourself in and shut up. I'm getting your sorry scaly butt out of here, and that's all that matters."

Except it wasn't all that mattered, Axel thought as he strode down the corridor towards the cockpit. Kilu was out there, buying them time by facing down an opponent that Axel could tell had her scared half to death. And the Sith would probably take her the rest of the way to that destination. Even if she didn't die, even if she managed to win, she'd be stranded on a planet inside Imperial territory--a virtual death sentence for a Jedi, especially a young, inexperienced one like her. As he sat down in the pilot's chair, the fact that he was doing exactly what she'd asked him to do was absolutely no consolation.

The sound of three sets of wheels motoring down the corridor barely intruded on his thoughts. A tentative series of beeps and whistles had slightly better luck.

"Shut up, Arf," Axel snapped back at his droid. "Go and get yourself ready for lift-off, too." The droid beeped a reluctant acknowledgement. "I know what I'm doing," Axel muttered.

Yes, he reflected, he knew exactly what he was doing. That was the problem. He activated the cockpit controls and started tapping in the pre-flight sequence.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Kilu stepped warily towards the Sith, her lightsaber humming as she held the blade up and in front of her, maintaining a defensive posture. She was reaching out with the Force, just as she'd been taught, trying to discern as much about her opponent as she could. What she was getting back wasn't exactly good news. Far from it, in fact. She sensed a mastery over the Force that exceeded her own; since she was still an apprentice Jedi, this didn't surprise her, but it was far from reassuring. She could also sense the dark side of the Force in him, could feel its dark, icy presence reaching towards her like so many invisible tendrils of some fearsome beast. Worse still, she could feel its pull. The dark side was calling to her, playing upon her fear, the certainty of the death she was now facing. She took a deep breath and did her best to mentally steady herself.

She was within two meters of him now. Easy striking distance for the lightsabers. Yet he held off his attack, and Kilu maintained her defensive posture. She forced herself to remember her lessons, for that was all she had to fall back on. She'd never faced an opponent in true combat with the lightsaber before. And she was certain the Sith could sense that.

"I can sense your fear, young Jedi," the Sith said, his tattooed lips curling into a malevolent grin, "and it is sweet. Drop your guard, turn off your saber, and I shall grant you a quick and easy death."

"Are you going to talk or fight?" Kilu said, but immediately regretted her momentary bravado. She had to buy time for Axel to get his ship away. Keeping the Sith talking was the best way to do that. The Sith's smile broadened and he shifted his stance as if preparing to attack. "Are you even a real Sith?" she suddenly said, desperate to stall him and buy Axel whatever time he needed. "Your order was wiped out when Vader and the Emperor died. For all I know, you're just some Force-sensitive wannabe with a tattoo fetish."

The Sith laughed. It wasn't a comforting sound. "It is amusing to see such bravado in one so young... and inexperienced. The Force has already confirmed what I am to you. And you were correct the first time... I weary of this pointless conversation."

_So much for that idea_, Kilu thought. _Me and my big mouth..._

The Sith's red saber blade made an angry humming noise as it sliced through the air in a downwards arc towards her. Kilu stepped to her right and deflected the blow, letting her opponent's momentum carry the glowing blade down and away from her, the energy beams making a loud crackling noise as they struck one another. She then swung her own blade back towards him in a counter-attack, but he brought his blade back quickly and parried her blow. He forced her blade aside and then swung at her neck, forcing Kilu to throw herself back into a Force-aided somersault to avoid being decapitated. She landed on her feet and raised her lightsaber into a defensive posture once again.

"Impressive," the Sith sneered, "for a mere child. This should prove most amusing."

Her opponent then came at her with a series of rapid blows that sent her retreating, stepping backwards as she desperately swung her blade to parry each vicious attempt to sever one of her limbs or eviscerate her. The blades crackled and sparked as they made contact time and again. Within moments, Kilu was panting and sweat was running down her face. She parried one blow and, when the Sith drew his blade back for yet another attack, she Force-jumped several meters up and back across the hangar, just to give herself a few seconds to catch her breath. The Sith wasn't going to give her that chance; he, too, Force-jumped and landed within striking distance of her.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked with mock solicitousness. "The lesson has only just begun."

Again, he came at her, and again, Kilu found herself retreating as she desperately struggled to parry each dangerous blow. She kept looking for an opportunity to turn the tide with a counter-attack, but her opponent did not present her with any openings that she, with her limited experience, could detect. So she focused on defense, on surviving. She realized that her only chance was if she stayed alive long enough for him to make a mistake. With any luck she'd be in a position to take advantage of it. Not that his performance thus far had made it seem like this was a likely possibility. His reference to this fight as a lesson wasn't far off--his execution thus far had been flawless. If her life hadn't been on the line, Kilu could indeed have learned several things from the battle.

She parried another blow, then moved her blade to parry the next, reading his posture and movement to try to anticipate his next attack. Too late, she realized she'd fallen victim to a skilful feint. Her lightsaber blade was in position to block a blow to her left, but his blade was moving to her right, towards her shoulder, and she tried to bring her blade back to defend herself, but she was too slow, he was too fast...

"AAAAHHH!!" she cried out as his blade struck her upper right arm. She stumbled backwards and the scent of burning cloth and flesh assaulted her nostrils. She somehow managed to hold on to her lightsaber in her right hand, but her entire right arm was dangling uselessly as she instinctively reached out towards the wound with her left hand. She inhaled sharply and grimaced as she touched her tender burnt flesh. It was already cauterized thanks to the nature of the Sith's weapon, but it hurt like hell, and no force in the universe--including the Force itself--was going to enable her to raise her right arm again during this fight.

For a moment, she marveled at the fact that she was still alive and in one piece. He'd had a clear opening; he could have easily cut off her entire arm, or even sliced right through her torso. It was then that she was struck by a horrible sinking feeling that roiled in her gut as though something cold and slimy had taken up residence there. He was toying with her, she suddenly realized. She was going to die; she knew that. She had accepted it as soon as she'd sent Axel into the freighter to take off without her. But her death would not be quick, nor would it be easy. The Sith wanted her to suffer.

She shifted her lightsaber to her left hand and raised it again, leaving her injured right arm to hang limply at her side. She'd been training, of course, to use the lightsaber ambidextrously. That didn't mean she'd mastered that tactic--far from it. But she had no choice.

"You fight on," the Sith said with mock admiration in his voice. "How valiant." He spread his arms wide, holding his lightsaber far off to his right side. "Out of respect for your tenacity, I offer you this chance. Take your best shot."

Breathing heavily, her body shaking from exertion and pain, Kilu knew he was taunting her. Yet she also knew she couldn't refuse the opportunity. No matter how slim the chance, she had to take it. With a shout of defiance, Kilu launched herself at him, swinging her lightsaber at his torso.

His own lightsaber swung back across his body to deflect hers aside so quickly that all she saw was a red blur. Then he swung his blade back again, swiping low, and Kilu cried out as the infernally hot tip of the blade sliced through her leading left thigh. Her leg gave out and she stumbled and fell awkwardly to the hard cement floor of the hangar. She lost her grip on her lightsaber as she used her left hand to reach out and absorb some of her fall; the weapon deactivated and spun across the floor away from her. With her right arm out of commission, she fell heavily and her right cheek struck the pavement hard. Lights danced in front of her eyes. She gulped down a breath and then desperately looked around for her lightsaber. Seeing it lying on the floor a few meters away, she reached out with her left hand, using the Force to call it to her. The saber hilt wobbled, then rose and flew through the air...

...Straight into the extended left hand of the Sith, who was standing triumphantly above her. Kilu could not suppress the groan of despair that rose to her throat in response to that sight. She was utterly defeated now, and knew that death was only moments away.

Yet the Sith was not done with her, was not going to let her off that easily. Her opponent tucked the captured lightsaber into his belt. He deactivated his own weapon and returned it to its belt clip. He gestured down towards her with his right hand, then upwards. With a gasp, Kilu found herself suddenly rising into the air until she was floating vertically in front of the Sith. Her right arm and her left leg throbbed with pain, her skin was covered with sweat, and her lungs were desperately gulping down air. Her entire body was trembling as it hung in the air in the Sith's Force-grip. Her brown eyes were opened wide in fear as his cruel, merciless grey eyes held her gaze.

"I offer you a choice, Kilu Branon," the Sith said, and Kilu's mind registered mild surprise that he knew her name. "I sense the Force is strong in you. You have much potential--killing you would be a waste. Renounce the Jedi. Embrace the dark side of the Force. I will take you as my student. I will teach you the way of the Sith..." he paused as his gaze wandered over her body lasciviously, "...and much more besides," he said with a salacious grin. "I will be your Master. What do you say?"

Behind her, at long last, Kilu heard the high-pitched whine of the _Nomad_'s engines powering up in preparation for lift-off. In seconds, Axel would have his ship rocketing out the open-roofed hangar and through the planet's atmosphere, and there was nothing the Sith could do about that now. She had lost, but she had also won. Just as her master had indirectly transferred responsibility for their mission to her, so she had transferred it to Axel. She only had one regret: that she would not get an opportunity to thank him. Well, she did have one other regret regarding the freighter pilot, but she couldn't do anything about either one now. Instead, she stared defiantly at the Sith who had defeated her.

"I'd sooner _die_," she snarled at him, then spat in his face.

The Sith's lip curled, and he wiped the spittle from his heavily-tattooed cheek. He then released his Force-grip on Kilu, and the injured and exhausted young Jedi fell to the hard concrete floor in an awkward, jumbled heap.

"Then you _shall_," the Sith said as he activated his lightsaber and swung it above his head.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

In the cockpit of the _Nomad_, Axel's instrument panel indicated everything was ready. The engines were powered up, the coordinates were entered in the navicomputer, and the skies above him were clear. His fingers hovered over the touch-sensitive screen, right over the command that would launch the ship out of the hangar and into the atmosphere--away from B'Tel Four, away from Imperial space, and away from the brave young woman who was probably, at this very moment, giving her life so he could make good his escape.

His hand remained there, unmoving, for several heartbeats. Pressing that command was as good as sentencing Kilu to death. He knew that. So did she. In fact, she'd ordered him to do exactly what he was now about to do. It was her last wish, that he see her mission through to its conclusion because she could not. Even so, he hesitated.

It wasn't just that he loathed the idea of abandoning someone like that. It also wasn't just the fact that he'd developed feelings for her, feelings that had grown more powerful the more time he'd spent in her presence and appreciated her beauty, her idealism, and especially now, her bravery and selflessness. No, there was something else, a nagging feeling that had been growing at the back of his mind ever since that Sith had appeared.

The Sith. One man. Formidable, to be sure... but only _one_? Why not a whole squadron of Stormtroopers, as he'd been expecting? Axel checked the long-range sensors' readouts again. Yes, it was clear sailing all the way out of the system--not a single Imperial Destroyer, Cruiser, Corvette, or even a single lousy TIE Fighter in the vicinity to get in his way.

Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Unless...

Axel uttered an angry moan and slapped his forehead with one hand. His hand reached out to tap a control on his command console, leaving his ship in an idling state. He released his restraints and rose from the pilot's seat, marched down the cockpit corridor, then turned and followed the main corridor around to the boarding ramp. He tapped a command into a wall console, and the boarding ramp began to lower while he pulled his blaster out of its holster. As he did so, a questioning series of beeps and whistles sounded from behind him.

"Quiet, Arf," Axel said over his shoulder to the agromech droid. "I know what I'm doing," then added in a low, hesitant tone, "I hope."

* * *

"I'd sooner _die_," Kilu snarled at her Sith opponent, then spat in his face.

The Sith wiped the spittle from his cheek, his lip curling into an angry sneer. He opened his fist, releasing his Force-grip, and Kilu's exhausted, injured body fell to the hard floor of the hangar, where she lay in an exhausted heap.

"Then you _shall_," the Sith said. He drew his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. As Kilu watched in defeated resignation, he raised the lightsaber above his head. She closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to calm herself and accept death as a Jedi should, waiting for the blow that would end her short young life.

A blow which did not come. She heard the lightsaber hum through the air, then heard a sharp retort as the energy blade warded off a blaster bolt. She heard another blaster shot, and another, and each time the Sith's lightsaber swung to deflect the blaster's projectiles. Kilu lifted and turned her head in surprise, refusing to believe what her senses were reporting. But sure enough, there he was, emerging from the side of his ship: Axel Bergeron, freighter pilot, facing down a Sith warrior with nothing more than a blaster and some of the most poorly-considered bravado in galactic history.

"Wow!" Axel exclaimed. He had an insipidly excited expression on his face as he walked slowly towards Kilu and the Sith. "That was _impressive_! You mind if I..."

With that, Axel rattled off another series of blaster shots at the Sith. The red-colored lightsaber blade growled as it quickly swung through the air to ward off each shot. Axel was shooting wildly--a couple of the shots ricocheted off the concrete hangar floor rather than the Sith's lightsaber, and Kilu instinctively, though painfully, pushed herself out of the line of fire, relying on her uninjured arm and leg, rolling and putting distance between herself and the Sith. She came to rest against one of the hangar walls near the starboard side of the Corellian-built freighter.

"_Very _impressive!" Axel said again. He was creeping slowly towards the Sith, who was regarding him coolly, his lightsaber at the ready to ward off any more of those ineffectual blaster shots. The two men began to circle one another, like two wary predators--or, more accurately, one predator and its somewhat-troublesome prey.

"You know," Axel said, "I've always wanted to see one of you people do that. But the galaxy is an awfully big place, and there are so few of you, so I thought I never would."

"I am not here to amuse you, _fool_," the Sith snarled at him.

"Didn't mean to imply you were," Axel said, raising his right hand in apology. "Hey, I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot. I'm Axel Bergeron, captain of the _Nomad_," he said, gesturing at the rear of his ship, where the engines were still humming in their idling state. "And you are...?"

"Darth Makab," the Sith said, "a name you will take to your _grave_."

"Okay, and you've got the whole villainous banter thing down pat too," Axel said, smiling and nodding. "You're the real deal, yessiree."

"Axel!" Kilu exclaimed from where she was laying on the ground, "what do you think you're _doing_? I told you to get out of here!"

"Hey, it's my ship, sweetheart--I'm my own boss, I don't take orders from anybody."

"Axel..." Kilu growled at him angrily.

"You should have heeded the girl's order, _fool_," Darth Makab said to Axel. "Now you will _both_ die..."

The Sith reached out towards Axel, and the pilot's blaster hand suddenly shot out in front of him. But then the pilot pulled it back and laughed softly.

"Nice try, pal," Axel said, then turned his right hand so Darth Makab could see the strap that fastened the blaster's handle to his wrist. "But dad always told me: try to keep your blaster in its holster, but once it's out, don't ever lose your grip on it."

Axel pointed the blaster at Makab and fired several shots, which the Sith ably blocked with his lightsaber. Again, some of the shots struck the ground near Makab's feet, which had the negligible effect of making the Sith move back a few steps. Darth Makab stopped moving when Axel stopped firing and glared at the pilot with undisguised contempt.

"You think you can save her?" he demanded. "_You?_ A mere pilot, with as much command over the Force as a _rock_?"

"Probably not," Axel admitted with a shrug, maintaining his aim at the Sith. "But that's another thing dad taught me: Never abandon a paying customer. Especially when they still owe you money."

"I grow weary of this," Darth Makab said with a sneer, and quickly gestured with his open hand towards Axel.

It was the second time that day that the freighter pilot had been Force-thrown, and he didn't like it any better. He flew backwards through the air and felt the breath leave his lungs when his back suddenly slammed into one of his ship's landing gear struts. He flopped to the ground like a rag doll.

"AXEL!" Kilu cried out.

"Nice to know you care..." Axel groaned as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. He gave his head a shake and then raised his blaster at the Sith again. He had to hold the weapon with two hands and even then was unable to keep it steady. "Oh, what's the point," he said, and dropped his gun hand to the ground.

"Axel, no..." Kilu groaned from several meters away as she saw him give up.

A low, triumphant laugh rumbled in Darth Makab's chest. He pointed his lightsaber at Axel. "Now you _die_," he said.

Axel raised his eyes to look at the Sith, who was standing a few paces in front of him, well to the rear of his ship. He then looked over at Kilu, who was off to his left, several meters away on the starboard side of the spacecraft. Finally, he stole a quick glance at the stern of his ship, which was directly above and in front of him.

"Normally, I'd agree with you," Axel said to the tattooed Sith, "but not today."

As Darth Makab frowned at this statement, Axel reached towards his belt buckle with his right hand. He flicked one of the fake jewels on the buckle, then pressed another. Above him, his ship's idling engines suddenly came to life. The roar of the YT-1300's sub-light engines filled the hangar bay, and the engine's rear exhaust ports flared, ejecting their white-hot vapor behind the ship--and directly at the surprised Sith. Instinctively, Darth Makab pushed his body upwards into a life-saving Force-jump. But that instinct kicked in a split-second too late, and all he succeeded in doing was launching his body more directly into the path of the searing engine exhaust. In less time than it took to blink, he was vaporized.

Axel pressed another of the cheap imitation jewels on his belt buckle, and the engines whined back down to an idling state before they could launch the ship out of the hangar. Gingerly, he pushed himself back to his feet. He looked warily around for any sign that the Sith had survived his close encounter with the freighter's engine exhaust. Seeing none, he sighed with relief, shoved his blaster back into its holster, and then slowly stumbled over to where Kilu was laying on the ground off to the starboard side of the ship.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Oh yeah, I'm just peachy," she said through clenched teeth as she slowly forced herself to her feet. She inhaled sharply when she tried to put some weight on her wounded left leg.

"Here, let me help you," Axel said, reaching out towards her, an action that made him wince when it made him use his sore back muscles.

"I think you need as much help as I do," she said as she threw her left arm over his shoulder, soliciting another pained wince from him.

"It's nothing," Axel said in a strained voice. "Some bruises... maybe a cracked rib or two... I've had worse."

"Really?" she asked him as they both started move slowly back to the boarding ramp.

"No, I'm lying," he said as his teeth ground together.

That managed to solicit a smile from her, however strained, and the sight immediately made Axel feel better. Sort of.

"What you did was... extraordinarily clever," Kilu said to him. "_And_ brave."

"My ego would be greatly assuaged," Axel replied as he helped her limp up the boarding ramp, "if you hadn't sounded so surprised when you said that."

She laughed softly at that, and the sound made Axel feel like he'd just been injected with a powerful painkilling hypospray. He reached out and tapped the wall console to close the boarding ramp.

"You saved my life," she said, suddenly serious.

She was standing right beside him. Her left arm was over his shoulder, his right hand was upon her waist. The side of her body was pressed against his, leaving an impression of pleasant warmth. And she was looking up at him with those eyes of hers, those big, lovely brown eyes, and they were filled with gratitude, and admiration, and... well, he didn't want to read too much into it.

Still. He'd never thought of himself as a hero. He'd never wanted to be one, not since he was a kid; he thought he'd grown out of it. His father had warned him, several times: heroes live hard and die young. But if this is what it felt like to be a hero, even if it was just for one brief moment in one other person's eyes... well, it wasn't half bad. Not bad at all.

Axel shrugged. "I'll add it to your tab," he said, earning another one of those brief little eruptions of laughter from her that made his head swim.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Working Class Hero**

**Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1**

_A fanfic by Sisiutil_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"Caf, black," Kilu said as she handed a mug to Axel and then lowered herself to the co-pilot's seat.

"Hey, thanks," Axel said, mildly surprised as he took the mug from her. He took a tentative sip, and his dark brows rose. "For someone who doesn't drink caf, you brew a pretty good cup of it," he said. "Glad to see you're up and about too. You're leg's not bothering you too much?"

"No more than your back is." Kilu smiled at him, and every time she did that he felt his heart skip a beat. "You're not such a bad field medic, either," she said. "A man of many talents."

"I fly alone most of the time," he said with a shrug. "I have to be self-sufficient."

She nodded in understanding. "How long before we reach Coruscant?" she asked him.

He turned to check the navicomputer. "Four days, six hours, give or take," he replied.

That was all the time he had left to be in her presence. In realspace terms, they'd crossed the border into New Republic space a few hours ago. Every light-year that rolled by took them closer to home and took her further away from him, in a metaphorical sense that would soon become literal. He suppressed a sigh. What had started out as a mere infatuation on his part had grown into something else, and that was just going to make it all the worse when she finally parted ways with him, as she inevitably would. She'd go back to her training as a Jedi--one of those few, precious agents of peace and justice in the galaxy. And he'd go back to hauling cargo from one seedy spaceport to another in his aging bucket of bolts. He smiled and gave his head a shake as he contemplated the utter disparity between their two lives.

"You know, I've been thinking," she said, bringing his attention back to the present. "The Empire obviously knew about my mission, which means..."

"You've got a leak back home somewhere," Axel said. He'd been thinking about the same thing. It was pretty obvious, when one got right down to it.

"Yes," she said, looking bleakly out into the shifting shapes of hyperspace. "I'll have to talk to Master Skywalker about it when I get back. I'm not sure who else I can trust."

_You can trust me_, Axel thought, but he didn't say it. Instead, he took a deep breath and prepared himself to deliver some more bad news.

"There's something else you might need to discuss with him," Axel said. He turned to look her way and found her watching him expectantly. "It's the reason I came back for you," he told her. An abashed smile appeared on his lips. "Actually, there were several reasons," he admitted, "but the thing is... I was sitting there, about to take off, when I realized something. It was like the Imperials had laid out a red carpet for me. I had T'Lon safely stowed away on board, and they weren't just _letting_ me go, it was like they were _inviting _me to leave. And I thought... why would they do that?" He stole a look at Kilu again, but she just shook her head. "Because," Axel continued, "they wanted me to _leave something behind._ So what was I leaving behind?" He slowly raised one hand and pointed his index finger at her. Kilu inhaled sharply as she realized the truth of everything he'd said, especially his conclusion. "They didn't give a womp rat's ass about T'Lon. They wanted _you_, Kilu." He paused and took a sip from his mug. "Any idea why?"

She sat staring out of the cockpit windows for several moments. Axel waited patiently. Finally she spoke. "Darth Makab made me an offer," she said softly.

"Let me guess," Axel said. "In exchange for your life, all you had to do was switch sides, join the dark side, and become a Sith yourself."

He watched her swallow. "Among other things," Kilu said quietly, "yes."

Axel felt his teeth grinding as he filled in the blanks and realized what those 'other things' would have been. "I guess a Dark Jedi with knowledge of the New Jedi Order would be pretty valuable to the Empire. You turned him down, of course," he said.

"Yes," Kilu said, but then turned to him, her lovely features filled with angst, her eyes shimmering. "But I was so tempted! I didn't want to die, Axel!"

He reached out and placed his hand over hers. This time she didn't pull away. "Under the circumstances, who wouldn't be tempted?" he said to her. "Don't be so hard on yourself."

"You don't understand," she said, her voice still filled with anguish. "It wasn't just my fear of death that tempted me... it was the dark side." She pressed her lips together. "It was there, in him... and it was calling to me..."

"Aren't all Jedi tempted by the dark side of the Force every now and then?" he asked her.

She turned her face away from him and was silent for a very long time. When she spoke again, he had to strain to hear her. "My great aunt was a Jedi," she told him, "back in the Old Republic. And she..." she paused to swallow, "she went over to the dark side. Since then, our family have avoided becoming involved with the Jedi, or the Force..."

"Until now. Until you." Axel said quietly. Kilu nodded. "So does this... susceptibility to the dark side... run in the family?"

"I don't know," she admitted despondently. She exhaled heavily and looked out of the cockpit windows, lost in her own inner turmoil. "I don't want to find out."

"Hey," Axel said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, "come on, you faced that temptation, and you won. I saw you. You stared right into the face of the dark side and you spat into it. You're _not_ your evil great aunt. You're Kilu Branon, _Jedi_. And from what I've seen, I think you're gonna be a damn good one."

She turned to face him again, her features lightening as a smile appeared on her lips. "Thanks for the pep talk, coach," she said.

"Mock me all you want," he told her in a facetiously superior tone, "but you know I'm right." He became serious again. "You kept to the light side. Even in the face of death."

"Even then," she acknowledged quietly, with a nod and a smile.

Her eyes were looking steadily into his, with that same admiring look she'd given him two days ago when he'd helped her back into the ship after the fight. Her hand was still resting beneath his, feeling warm and deceptively soft, belying the strength he knew was there in her body... and in her spirit. Not for the first time, he reminded himself that she'd be gone, out of his life, in just a few days. The sooner he killed off these absurd feelings he was developing for her, the better. He began to pull his hand away. Then, to his surprise, she wrapped her other hand around his and clasped it tighter.

"You know," she said, turning her body in the seat towards him, "when I was lying there... defeated... facing certain death... I only had two regrets." She paused and fixed him with a steady gaze. "They were both about you."

"Oh?" he said, making himself sound as nonchalant as he could manage.

"Uh-huh," she said. "First of all, I regretted the fact that I'd never get a chance to thank you. So, thank you, Axel Bergeron. For everything."

"Aw, shucks, ma'am," Axel said in his best imitation of an arid planet-based, moisture-farming yokel. "It weren't nothin'."

"I disagree," she said, then sat there, smiling at him.

"So, uh," Axel said after a moment's silence, "what was the second big regret?"

She said nothing. Instead, her smile broadened. She rose from the co-pilot's chair and, as Axel watched in stunned silence, she moved herself next to him, then neatly sat down in his lap. She raised her arms and wrapped them both around his neck. Then she leaned forward, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips against his. The kiss was long, and soft, and oh so very sweet. Axel felt his face flush, felt his blood pounding in his ears, but mostly he felt her soft, warm lips pressed against his own, then a teasing flick of her tongue that made him feel like he'd just touched a live wire. He reached up and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her against him.

After what seemed like an eternity, she broke the kiss and pulled her head back from his just a little. He slowly let out a breath, feeling a slight tremor in his body as he did so. Then he watched as she turned her head just slightly and stared down the corridor. Her eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed ever-so-slightly in an expression that he'd come to realize indicated that she was reaching out with the Force.

"Your other passenger is asleep," she said.

"Uh, yeah," Axel muttered. "That's... not too surprising. Halassians have a sixteen-hour sleep cycle..." he said, wondering where the heck that factoid had come from, especially at a moment like this. _I have way too much time on my hands_, he thought.

"Good," Kilu said, turning her face back towards his and smiling once again. She glanced at his command console. "Does this crate of yours have an auto-pilot?"

"Of course," he said. "It's, uh, currently engaged..."

"Well then," she said, her voice lowering an octave. She brought one hand around his neck so her fingers could idly play with the little black hairs at the base of his throat. "You don't really need to be up here, do you?"

He swallowed. "Uh, no, I guess not," he said, then looked at her with a puzzled frown on his face. "I thought Jedi... didn't... you know..."

Her slender brows rose. "I don't know _what_ you've been reading about us, and I don't think I want to," she remarked. "Of course we... _indulge_. Every now and then." She shrugged. "We just aren't supposed to form permanent attachments," she added in a light tone.

Axel's face fell. "Oh," he said. His hands fell away from where they'd been caressing her back, and he looked away from her. "Well. That's convenient," he muttered, equal parts disappointment and a sudden bitterness plainly evident in his voice.

It was her turn to frown at him. She stopped teasing the base of his throat with her fingers and clasped his chin, forcing him to raise his eyes to meet hers.

"Axel," she said, "are you...?"

"Of course I am," he said desolately. "What man wouldn't be?"

"Oh, Axel..." she said with a sympathetic sigh. She leaned forward until her forehead was resting against his. She then raised her lips and kissed his forehead, then looked into his eyes. "I'm sorry. It's... the way it has to be." She caressed his cheek, smiled sadly, and shrugged. "Take it or leave it," she said to him, her tone gentle and sympathetic, but final.

He stared steadily back into her eyes for a long time, wanting to give her the impression that he was thinking it over. But he knew there was only one path for him to follow, even if it eventually led to pain, and he suspected she could sense the decision he'd already made. He wrapped his arms around her strong, slender body and pulled her even tighter against his own. He tilted his face upwards and his lips found hers again. Of course he'd take whatever she was prepared to offer him, for however brief a time. She'd leave and she'd take his heart with her, but he'd just have to deal with it. Until then, he would abandon his caution, his aversion to risk, his plain, ordinary, routine life, and he'd plunge headlong into the enticing combination of comfort and excitement she offered. His father might have had something to say about that, but his father was gone now. He was his own man and would make his own decisions. And he'd live with the consequences.

"Your cabin or mine?" he asked her when he broke the kiss.

"Yours," she said with a grin. "The captain always gets the best quarters, doesn't he?"

As they rose from his chair and moved towards the corridor, Axel stole a glance at the navicomputer's readouts. Four days, five hours and change remained before their arrival on Coruscant. It wasn't much. But it would have to do.

* * *

On the Imperial star destroyer _Dauntless, _orbiting in the shadow of a planetary moon in the B'Tel system, Captain Wurkun Darr approached the ship's guest quarters. A career military man, Darr was slender, his olive-green uniform immaculately crisp, his hair cut severely short. His hair had once been jet black, but was now prematurely grey, something he blamed entirely on the despised rebels and the blows they had inflicted on his beloved Empire. But the Empire would rise again, and Darr would do everything in his power to bring that about. Including dealing with the man who currently resided in his ship's best guest quarters, no matter how... _uncomfortable_... that man made him feel.

Captain Darr pressed a control on the wall console next to the door. He didn't hear the chime himself, of course, but after a moment's pause, the door slid open.

"Come in," a deep male voice said from within the dimmed light of the luxurious cabin.

"Have you read the report?" Captain Darr asked his guest without preamble as he walked into the room.

"Of course," the man seated upon a couch in the middle of the room responded. He was tall, solidly-built, golden-skinned, and had exactly the sort of jet-black hair Darr himself used to have. Before the dark times. Before the _rebellion_.

Captain Darr exhaled in a way that clearly expressed his irritation. "Someone will have to pay for this failure," he said. "Whom can we..."

"Failure?" the other man said. "Who said it was a _failure?_"

Darr blinked in surprise. "With all due respect... the Halassian Foreign Minister is on his way to negotiate with those cursed Republicans, your apprentice is dead, and that young female Jedi is still at large."

The man sitting upon the couch waved one hand dismissively. "All of which does not affect my plans in the slightest. Quite to the contrary, in fact; everything is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen."

"Indeed?" Captain Darr said dubiously. "Perhaps you could care to enlighten me, Mister Vax."

The other man rose from the couch and fixed the Captain with a hard, cold stare that sent a shiver running down the Imperial officer's back.

"Cylus Vax is dead," the other man said. "I am Darth Mostrus now." An amused smile appeared on his face, changing the shape of his first Sith tattoo, a stylized black mark which bisected his upper lip. It was the first of many tattoos, painfully applied, that would eventually cover his entire body. "Vax was killed several days ago on Sessram Prime, a fact to which my once... and _future_... apprentice will readily attest. At least until I meet her again. As for what I know of the future, Captain," he said, his smile doing nothing to erase the Imperial officer's trepidations, "you must have faith." He paused and froze the Captain in place with a piercing, searching gaze. "You do have _faith_, don't you Captain? I find a lack of faith in senior officers to be most... _disturbing_."

Captain Darr swallowed hard. "I have faith. In the Empire. I always have and I always shall."

Darth Mostrus appeared to give that some thought. "It will do," he said, and Darr let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Now leave me," Mostrus said and turned away. The Captain was only too happy to comply.

"Ah, my dear Kilu," the Sith said once he was alone, a malicious grin on his lips as he gazed out into the black depths of space through the high, thick windows of his quarters. "I can hardly wait to see the look on your face..."

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED... 


End file.
